Raven
by Cloverfur
Summary: A mysterious thing causes ThunderClan leader Darkstar to kill his apprentice, Lilypaw. What caused this change in the leader? Who will stop it before it's too late? Will it be Rabbitstep, Brackenwing, Firenose, or Eaglemist?
1. Prologue

**Raven**

Prologue

Tall trees stood in a silent forest. Wind hit them, shaking their leaves to the ground. Darkness covered their tops.

Suddenly they were pushed apart by a brown tom. She ran through the forest, trying to escape the unforgiving paws chasing her from her home. How could her own sister do this to her?

Wolfpaw stopped when she came to a stream. She turned around, facing Rabbitpaw. The orange and brown apprentice walked towards her slowly.

"Rabbitpaw…" Sniffled Wolfpaw.

"How could this happen?" Growled Rabbitpaw.

"I don't know." cried Wolfpaw.

"He just...turned." Rabbitpaw quietly meowed.

"It's like it just took Darkstar and made him lose control."

"He couldn't even _move_."

Wolfpaw thought back to the thing at the gathering. When Darkstar was leading them to Fourtrees, she had seemed a little…off. Nobody expected that halfway through, she would just freeze. She would never forget the look of horror on his face.

Everybody knew that Darkstar had some catnip issues. She used a little more than what the medicine cat said was good for him. Others had worried, but catnip had never done anything like this before.

She just attacked her poor little apprentice, Lilypaw. He could barely scream before his neck was snapped. Rabbitpaw was right; nobody had ever seen anything like this before.

Lilypaw was very close to Darkstar. Leaders don't tend to take cats as their apprentices unless they are very special. Lilypaw was definatly special.

Darkstar opposed hurting any other cat more than anybody else in ThunderClan. It hurt her to go to war. She hated to have to say anything bad about anybody.

How this even happened was a mystery that kept playing through her head. Why would she do it? How could she even think of this?

It was so shocking, even as she was thinking about it; he didn't fully realize what had just happened. How it had just happened. That she had ever even left the gathering at all.

He just sat there in shock for so long. Everybody just sat and stared. Nobody could understand it.

His kind leader had turned into a monster. Turned and snapped on one of her own. Betrayed the Clan.

He didn't know who was more shocked, himself or Rabbitpaw. Rabbitpaw had always looked up to Darkstar. Who didn't?

He knew Darkstar; he wouldn't turn on a fellow cat. Especially not one from his Clan. It was just against his nature.

Sure, Lilypaw and Darkstar argued. They would argue about what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and basically anything else that came up in deciding those three things. They argued more than any other two cats in the entire Clan.

However, they loved each other. They shared meals. They even shared a den.

"Are you okay?" asked Rabbitpaw.

"Yes." Wolfpaw said.

"You're almost as bad at lying as Otterpaw." Laughed Rabbitpaw.

"Shut up." Snapped Wolfpaw.

About a moon ago, four new apprentices joined ThunderClan. Otterpaw, Spottedpaw, Nightpaw, and Brightpaw. They refused to tell anybody what their names were.

Brightpaw was actually much older than most apprentices, and the mother of Otterpaw, Spottedpaw, and Nightpaw. They just showed up on the border and demanded to be let in. It wasn't even a doubt they were here to stay.

"I'm sorry, Rabbitpaw. I just can't go on wondering if my mentor will turn on me any day. It's better to die now than suffer later." Wailed Wolfpaw.

"No…Wolfpaw…no. Please! You can't do this!" screamed Rabbitpaw.

It was too late. Wolfpaw leaped off the edge of the cliff and into the waters below. He knew it was better this way.

Rabbitpaw looked over the edge hopefully, but with a splash, Wolfpaw was gone. This was all so sudden. Too sudden.

He wondered what Otterpaw and Spottedpaw would think. Both had been in love with him, and he had been in love with both. He had told them that when he got back from the gathering he would chose.

Now neither of them would have him. To get here so soon and lose someone so soon would be something heartbreaking to tell. He softly cried thinking about how to deal with two loses at once.

Darkstar had been like an older brother to him. That made it three loses. Rabbitpaw wailed out in pain, thinking about all the times he trained with Lilypaw.

After killing Lilypaw, Darkstar just transformed. Her bones turned to mush and her organs to goo. Their leader very quickly turned into an orange inch long slimy thing.

It was like a snail with no shell. It oozed a black slime onto the ground. It was gray at first and then turned darker.

It had little holes on its back where the slime came out. It didn't have any arms or legs. It didn't have a tail.

It didn't have any eyes, any nose, or a mouth. In fact, there was no way for it to breath. It didn't appear to breath at all.

It was alive. It was moving. It was Darkstar.

Within seconds, Darkstar morphed back into normal and looked around confused. She didn't seem to remember any of it. She seemed sad about Lilypaw's death.

Rabbitpaw sat and sobbed. It wasn't fair. It didn't even make any sense.

She half wondered if this was some twisted dream she would soon wake up from. Yet she never woke up, no matter how hard she wanted to. This wasn't just going to go away.

She wouldn't have fought so much with Wolfpaw if she knew he was going to be gone so soon. She would have stopped herself. She would have savored the time she had with him.

There was no time now. She had to chance to go back into the past and change how she acted. There was no chance to make things right.

If only she had the chance. If only things could be right. If only.

There was a noise behind her. It was Otterpaw.

"Hey, Rabbitpaw. I thought Wolfpaw was with you? It's been a while and you haven't come back to camp. Where's Wolfpaw?" asked Otterpaw.

"He's dead." Sobbed Rabbitpaw.

"Dead?" asked Otterpaw.

"Dead. Gone. He killed himself." Rabbitpaw softly cried out.

"I was going to tell him to choose Spottedpaw." Said Otterpaw.

"What? Why?"

"I love you." Said Otterpaw.

"What?"

"It's true."

"What? When? How?"

"I realized that I never loved Wolfpaw. It was all just to get closer to you. I know this is hard for you to hear, losing your brother seconds ago."

"Wolfpaw _and _Darkstar."

"Darkstar is back…and ranting about creatures from other worlds like normal. She decided there should be more patrols to watch out for them. Good old Darkstar."

"Yeah." Rabbitpaw laughed. "Remember the time she thought Froststripe was secretly trying to kill him?"

"Then she made us all 'prove ourselves'."

"Then she thought that Badgercall was a kittypet."

"So now she thinks Finch-heart is an 'alien' as he puts it."

"That sounds like her."

"Rabbitpaw can I tell you a secret?"

"What?"

"I'm a queen. I came out here to have my kittens. Here." Otterpaw unfolded her paws to reveal three lumps of fur.

"_What_."

"Their names are Brackenkit, Firekit, and Eaglekit." She said.

Otterpaw collapsed upon her paws. Rabbitpaw moved the kittens away from their sick mother. He cried at the idea of losing someone else.

Blood covered her back legs. She was fading away quickly. Rabbitpaw wondered if it could get any worse.

"Be…strong…" coughed Otterpaw.

Rabbitpaw found it very hard to be strong. Everybody he loved was dying before him in seconds. Faster than he could even think his world was ending.

She was gone. In seconds she was dead. It was all over.

He promised he would protect them. The kits he loved.


	2. the Hunting Trip and the Flame

**Raven**

**Author's Note: **Just to make everything clear:

Wolfpaw – tom

Rabbitpaw – she-cat

Darkstar- she-cat

Lilypaw- tom

Otterpaw- she-cat

Spottedpaw- she-cat

Nightpaw- tom

Brightpaw- she-cat

Froststripe- she-cat

Badgercall- she-cat

Finch-heart- tom

Brackenkit- tom

Firekit- she-cat

Eaglekit- she-cat

Brightkit- tom

Beetlekit- tom

The Flame- she-cat

Chapter I

_Three moons later…_

Things had been tough for Rabbitpaw. So much had happened in one night. She hardly knew what to think about it.

At least she had Brackenkit, Firekit, and Eaglekit. They had been given to her mentor, Froststripe. She was mates with Finch-heart and they had two kits, Brightkit and Beetlekit.

Brightkit and Beetlekit were born the previous moon. Until Froststripe got out of the nursery, Badgercall was her mentor. It wouldn't be long until Rabbitpaw got her warrior name.

Spottedpaw had been acting weird around Rabbitpaw lately. She always wanted to train with her, always wanting to do _everything _with her. She even wanted to eat with her.

Rabbitpaw put up with it though. It was a little creepy; Spottedpaw looked almost exactly like Otterpaw. Secretly, this was one of the reasons she put up with it.

Today, Rabbitpaw and Spottedpaw were hunting together. Rabbitpaw had caught a frog and a toad. Spottedpaw had caught an eagle, a hawk, a falcon, and a finch.

At the moment, Rabbitpaw was trying to catch a thrush that was eating a crumb off the ground that some Twoleg had dropped recently. It was hovering around a rabbit hole. She crept up to it, making sure to be silent.

She pounced, landing ontop of the bird! Suddenly, she started to roll down into the hole. Rabbitpaw was never that good at hunting.

The bird's neck snapped as they rolled down the tunnel. Rabbitpaw figured it must be some sort of rabbit hole. It looked too big to be that, though.

She came to a screeching halt in some sort of big room. She heard Spottedpaw trot after her. Rabbitpaw shook her head and looked around.

This place looked big enough to house several cats at once. There were paw prints, so she wasn't the first in this tunnel. There were other tunnels leading out the very back of it, probably where cats from other clans were coming in through.

Rabbitpaw could hardly believe her eyes. She had stumbled on a secret underground meeting place, like the kinds that Darkstar talked about! She could have never believed a place like this existed.

She looked over at Spottedpaw. Her eyes were wide like a mouse's before a kill. She was obviously just as shocked as Rabbitpaw was.

She wondered what this place could be for. Could it have something to do with Darkstar's kill of Lilypaw just three moons before? Or was it for something different, something even bigger?

She heard footsteps from one of the tunnels at the end of the underground clearing. A large orange tabby she-cat stepped out of it. Her eyes were a sparkling emerald.

"I am the Flame. You are not supposed to be here." She said.

"The…Flame? So you're not a Clan cat?" asked Rabbitpaw.

"No. I used to be a 'kittypet' by the name of 'La Flamme'…they thought that was the cool way to say it. Most just say the Flame." The Flame explained.

"Do you prefer La Flamme?" asked Spottedpaw.

"You can call me whatever you wish." the Flame replied.

"Were all this paw prints made by you?" asked Rabbitpaw.

"No. They were made by many cats." Said the Flame.

"Can you tell me the names of these cats?" asked Spottedpaw.

"Wolfpaw, Darkstar, Lilypaw, Otterpaw, and Nightpaw." Said the Flame.

"What were they doing here?" asked Rabbitpaw.

"You would know, Spottedpaw, you were there as well." Laughed the Flame.

Rabbitpaw turned to Spottedpaw in horror. Was her new love somehow involved in something bad? Then she thought about it, and letting four strange cats into your Clan and not asking questions wasn't the smartest plan on Darkstar's part.

Spottedpaw bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Rabbitpaw. It's true. I'm not from your world."

"How…how…" Rabbitpaw could hardly believe her ears. She had stumbled onto the meeting place of…'aliens'…and her own leader? How could this even be possible?

"My stupid sister, Nightpaw, was playing and jumped too high. I told her she would float out into the stars but she wouldn't listen. So we had to go get her, and she floated away onto ThunderClan land." Explained Spottedpaw.

"So…what are you planning here?" asked Rabbitpaw dumbfounded.

"So we came up with a plan to get back to our planet. We were going to throw Nightpaw back into space and wait for her to float back to our planet. Then we were going to have her float back, grab us, float back into space and take us home." Said Spottedpaw.

"That is _the _most ridiculous plan I have _ever _heard of. You have to be kidding me. You _can't _be serious." Laughed Rabbitpaw.

"It's true." Said the Flame

"So what do Wolfpaw and Darkstar and Lilypaw have anything to do with this?" asked Rabbitpaw.

"My father's name was Wolfstorm. When Nightpaw floated into space, he felt such guilt that he killed himself. His spirit jumped into Wolfpaw's body." Said Spottedpaw.

"No. You're insane. None of this is possible." Said Rabbitpaw.

"That's what I thought when I heard all of this." Said the Flame.

"However, I don't want to leave, because I love you Rabbitpaw." Said Spottedpaw. "On my home planet, I'm already married to another cat named Ravenpaw. Yet I still love you and want to stay with you in ThunderClan."

"You are all completely insane. There is absolutely no way any of that is true. You might have been able to sell all of this to Darkstar but you don't fool me." Snarled Rabbitpaw.

"There is only one to stay with you forever. I must join Wolfstorm in StarClan. Goodbye, Rabbitpaw." Said Spottedpaw.

With that, Spottedpaw rushed out the tunnel and off a cliff, leaving for StarClan's safety once and for all.


End file.
